Out of the Abyss

Session IV

29 Day of Uktar 1489DR

Our party of adventurers left the cavern of bones and continued their journey towards Sloobludop. En route, they were spotted by a Drow who had been sent forth from a now burning Velkynvelve by a search party in an attempt to track their escaped prisoners. Aerleth however, still in the garb of a drow guard managed to convince the scout that the party they were looking for were in fact a days travel hence, and that he should head back to his party to report on the matter to his superiors.
That night, as they were beginning to unwind from their travels, the party stumbled across a warning, carved into a stalagmite in a cavern. Their drow companion Sarith Kzekarit translated it for them as meaning, “Demons Ahead!” The party decided to rest here before delving deeper into the supposedly demon infest area of the Underdark.
The next day of travel was mostly uneventful, except for a rock fall avoided by all except Tobias, who found himself buried amongst the rubble. Though injured by the falling rocks he was able to lift crawl out from underneath the rubble and was quickly healed by Aerleth and one of his potions of healing. As the day went on however, there was a growing realisation that the party would not have enough water for all to make it to Sloobludop without suffering some of the effects of dehydration.
The next day the party found their way into a fungal cavern filled with Ormu – a bioluminescent green moss – and Ripplebark – a rather hideous looking fungus that resembles rotting flesh but is surprisingly edible. The party harvested the Ripplebark in order to boost their food supplies. They were not alone in this cavern however. They met a group of six Deep Gnomes of the Itchy Pack Company, a “charitable” venture aiming to provide those lost in the Underdark with basic supply packs and limited rations. Though Aerleth was aware that Itch and his company were not offering all of the rations that they had available, the group felt that it would be unethical to force the company to part with them, despite their own desperate situation. Aerleth also offered to sell Itch his collection of 4 mummified elven fingers – which he had found whilst looting in Velkynvelve. Itchy agreed to by them for 5 silver pieces, a deal for which he seemed overly proud.
The final day’s travel before reaching Sloobludop ended with water supplies being dangerously low, leaving Buppido,Prince Derendil, Eldeth, Topsy and Turvy without water. However the next day the group came within sight of Sloobludop, which from a distance looked like little more than tangled reeds stretching up into the darkness and lit by glowing spots of phosphorescence. As they approached however they were ambushed by a group of Kuo-Toa who were quickly knocked out and interrogated by the party. The groups leader continued to refer to the party as offerings to the Deep Father. It was decided that these Kuo-Toa should be bound and used as a show of strength in order to intimidate any other Kuo-Toa within Sloobludop who saw them as offerings too.
Shortly after their encounter however the party were greeted by Ploopploopeen, the Archpriest of Blibdoolpoolp, the Sea Mother – and leader of Sloobludop. He explained to the group that his daughter (Bloppblippodd) had attempted to usurp him, declaring allegiance to their new deity, Leemooggoogoon the Deep Father. This attempted coup has resulted in Sloobludop being divided, with in-fighting taking place between the two religious factions of Sloobludop.
Ploopploopeen explained that he would like to use the party as bait, to disrupt a great ritual that the worshipers of the Deep Father were planning. In exchange they would be greatly rewarded. The party however decided to forgo material wealth and instead chose to negotiate food and water supplies, as well as a boat to cross The Darklake, in exchange for their assistance. It was also agreed that all of their companions would be kept safe whilst they attempted the infiltration. All except for Eldeth, Jimjar and Turvey who would accompany them.
The party were escorted to the Altar of the Deep Father, bound but still armed, and were presented to Bloppblippodd, Archpriest of the Deep Father, as a peace offering. She accepted the gift in the name of the Deep Father declaring that they should be sacrificed to nourish and strengthen him. Her followers erupted in cheers, their fists raised in the air in excited for their impending sacred doom…

Session III

27th Day of Uktar 1489DR

The party narrowly managed to escape Velkynvelve, but not before setting the entire compound ablaze. However, Lady Ilvara was nowhere to be found before they made their escape.
Upon reaching the cavern floor of the Underdark, the party and their companions began an in depth discussion as to where they should head towards. It was ultimately decided that they would head towards the kuo-toa town of Sloobludop in order to acquire boats to cross the region know as Darklake.
Two days of travel have passed since the escape from Velkynvelve, during which time the group have noticed that they were being watched overnight by seemingly docile quaggoths. They were also ambushed by skeletons in a cavern filled with bones, bones which were being looted by a small group of bandits.
Now the party find themselves attempting to navigate the tunnels of the Underdark once more, foraging for food and water so that they may merely survive.

Session II

Date: 27 Uktar 1489DR

After escaping their cell, the prisoners took the fight to the guards outside of it and managed to break into the initial watch-tower which had a direct view into their cell. After clearing the watch-tower of Drow they investigated the upstair floor to discover an armoury containing weapons and armour. Unfortunately however it did not contain the gear that had been confiscated from them upon their arrival.

Jorlan, the scar faced drow, requested that he be let go now that they had escaped their cell and revealed that he was planning to let them escape anyway in order to make his superior officer, Shoor, look incompetent in the eyes of Mistress Ilvara. The group however felt that it was safer to keep Jorlan close.

The group then devised a plan to await the upcoming guard changed and ambush the fresh set of guards. This went mostly quite smoothly aside from one managing to escape. Garth and Aerleth scouted up ahead to see if they may be able to steal food and provisions from the kitchen but quickly returned, believing the numbers to be too great to succeed undetected.

The group repeated the same plan as before except this time, with the knowledge of the escaped drow, the reinforcements were much more prepared and brought with them Shoor, the leading officer of the drow forces in Velkynvelve.

After an intense fight, Shoor was slain. The group plotted to repeat the exact same plan once more to eliminate the remaining forces of Velkynvelve before heading on their way to Sloobludop – where they might be able to find themselves a boat to cross The Darklake.

The final group of drow approached the watch-tower. They weren’t however without their own surprise. A priestess of Lolth…

26 Uktar (The Rotting) 1489DR

Left with no beds or comforts, stripped of all but their undergarments and manacled. Along with their other bizarre fellow prisoners they were all quickly and frequently put to work on menial tasks. In fact the tasks were little more than an opportunity for the Drow to keep their slaves busy and show their dominance.

An initial attempt yielded little results though what it did earn the prisoners was a lack of food for the day.

As part of the groups tasks for the day, a couple of them were accompanied by Ront (an orc bully) and Eldeth Feldrun (a female shield dwarf) to rebuild a wall near a waterfall passing through the outpost – a wall that they had been attempting to build since their arrival. The problem of course that every time it neared completion, their Drow captors would knock it down and demand that they start again.

Ront’s attempts at contribution were below par and so Eldeth, in an attempt to be helpful what with her race’s affinity for stonework, began to make adjustments to his work. Ront quickly became angry and despite the group’s efforts to calm him he attempted to begin a rampage.

He was quickly subdued. In a show of dominance, the drow poisoned him with coated crossbow bolts leaving him defenceless, they bound him and threw him from the cliffs of the outpost into the net of webbing below. The group were made to watch as giant spiders tore him apart.

Overnight Cole and Garth both had peculiar dreams. Garth dreamed of the twisting caverns of the Underdark whilst pursuing his sister only to find the corpse of his mentor, his throat slit and the wounds infested with maggots. Cole also dreamed of the twisting caverns and dreamt that he became trapped within them. A familiar female voice offered words of encouragement before oily tentacles wrapped themselves around him dragging him into the darkness.

27 Uktar 1489DR

The group awoke and quickly began plotting their means of escape. Shuushar the Awakened a kuo toa, fellow prisoner and pacifist insisted in having no part in any violence that would ensue. Stool, the myconid sprout who shared the cell with the group (and allowed them all to communicate telepathically via his spores) befriended Garth an expressed his desire to return home to his family in the Neverlight Grove.

The group quickly came to a consensus that well timed unison could allow them to over-power their captors in order to make their getaway. As the scar faced drow entered the cell to deliver their daily meal of fungal broth, flanked by two of his Quaggoth bodyguards, the group leapt into action. They knocked the two Quaggoth out, restrained the scar faced Drow, picked him up and charged out of the door of the cell…

The adventure log is where you list the sessions and adventures your party has been on, but for now, we suggest doing a very light “story so far” post. Just give a brief overview of what the party has done up to this point. After each future session, create a new post detailing that night’s adventures.

One final tip: Don’t stress about making your Obsidian Portal campaign look perfect. Instead, just make it work for you and your group. If everyone is having fun, then you’re using Obsidian Portal exactly as it was designed, even if your adventure log isn’t always up to date or your characters don’t all have portrait pictures.